The elephant's eye is a fiery amber color that blazes against creased skin.
(Courtesy National Geographic)More Photos
| Watch Live | World News Webcast |
"One hundred miles is a little stroll to an elephant. You can never give an elephant enough space in a zoo. It's like putting a human being in a matchbox for life," Sheldrick said.
For the last 30 years Sheldrick has been rescuing baby elephants orphaned and traumatized by the bloodshed of poachers.
"When they come in, newly orphaned, they have nightmares at night. They wake up screaming," said Sheldrick, who has become a surrogate mother at The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Nairobi, Kenya, her orphanage for elephants. "The elephants have been the greatest challenge that I've had to face. Because at any age an elephant duplicates a human. When you take on an elephant, it's actually a lifetime's job."
Sheldrick and her devoted team nurture the babies back to physical health by feeding them milk every three hours, and back to emotional health by teaching them how to play and bond with new friends.
The keepers even sleep with the orphans at night, becoming a surrogate human family so that one day the elephants will be strong in spirit, and ready to join wild herds again.
"They have to be psychologically sound, because the wild elephants don't want a problem," said Sheldrick.
But there are some babies Sheldrick can't save. Elsewhere in the world, nursing elephants are separated from their mothers, their spirits broken in secret training camps so they can be taught to give tourists rides.
For decades, animals in the entertainment industry have been made to perform behaviors never seen in the wild, and the weight of captivity is bearing down on even the mightiest of animals.
"They're essentially very gentle animals. So for an elephant to become aggressive and kill a human, you have to understand how badly he's been treated by humans to be able to pluck up the courage to do that," Sheldrick said.
But something revolutionary is happening in the flatlands of Tennessee. Deep roars can be heard through trees that shield neighbors from an unlikely sight, one that is hidden from the main roads. A kind of asylum exists for previously dangerous or deprived elephants in captivity, now living the rest of their lives here in the semi-wild. Driving past the perimeter fences, an awareness that huge animals are nearby and unseen evokes comparisons to Jurassic Park, but with a therapeutic mission. The Elephant Sanctuary, a private nonprofit organization in Hohenwald, Tenn., spans 2,700 acres of forests and spring-fed ponds.
Do you have more information about this topic? If so, please click here to contact the editors of ABC News.
